


I Had a Dream I Was Your Hero

by gutsandglitter



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Fake Dating, Hackle Summer Trope Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-19 23:44:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14883528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gutsandglitter/pseuds/gutsandglitter
Summary: Hecate looked down at Ada imploringly. “I know you had wanted us to keep things a secret, just during the transition period, but I was just saying that we’re quite serious about each other,” she continued, “so seeing other people isnot an option.”When Hecate is propositioned by Agatha, she panics and says she's already in a relationship with Ada. Ever the good sport, Ada tries to play along.





	I Had a Dream I Was Your Hero

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cassiopeiasara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassiopeiasara/gifts).



> For the lovely cassiopeiasara, who gave me this prompt ages ago.
> 
> Set during the summer before Ada's first year as headmistress.

Ada considered herself to be a patient woman. After forty years of dealing with Agatha and fifteen years of teaching pre-teen girls, she had thought that by now she could put up with just about anything. 

But it seemed that she did have a breaking point after all, one that could only be reached after four straight hours of going over expense reports with her mother. She had hit a wall, and she feared that if she so much as looked at another line item she would burst into tears.

“Do you mind if we break for a while? My legs could do with a bit of a stretch.”

Alma looked at her from over the tops of her spectacles. “Of course. But don’t be too long, we still need to get this done by end of day.”

Ada nodded and exited her mother’s office as quickly as she could manage without running. She supposed she should be grateful for any sort of respite, no matter how short.

 _I just need some fresh air, that’s all_ , she thought. _A nice walk around the grounds to clear my head._

She started down the corridor, massaging her temples as she went. She had spent her whole life preparing to become headmistress of the academy, but in all that time no one had ever told her there would be so much maths involved. If she had known that, she might have considered giving up her birthright altogether and going to work as a librarian in the city. 

_Perhaps I’ll be able to delegate when it comes to the financials. Miss Gullet does have a strange affinity for spreadsheets..._

She rounded the corner and almost walked straight into Agatha, who seemed to have Hecate backed into a corner. Ada started to apologize, but Hecate cut her off.

“Oh there you are, darling!” she cried. 

Ada’s eyebrows shot up. “Wha-” 

Hecate drew Ada to her side and rested a hand on the small of her back. “Ada, dearest, I was just telling your sister that you and I have been seeing each other.”  
Ada felt as if her brain had short-circuited. She had no earthly idea what was going on, and the only thought that registered was how good Hecate smelled.  
Hecate looked down at Ada imploringly. “I know you had wanted us to keep things a secret, just during the transition period, but I was just saying that we’re quite serious about each other,” she continued, “so seeing other people is _not an option_.” 

Oh. 

_OH._

A flare of anger rose up in Ada’s chest, mixed with a tiny measure of smug satisfaction. 

“No, not an option at all,” she said, wrapping an her arm around Hecate’s waist. She felt some of the tension leave Hecate’s body as a look of relief washed over her face. Ada tightened her hold and looked back at Agatha, who rolled her eyes.

“Ada, really? Of all people.”

“Yes,” Hecate said, curling her arm so her hand now rested on Ada’s hip. 

Ada swallowed and tried to keep up a neutral expression, as if Hecate caressed her like this every day.

“I don’t believe that for a second,” Agatha said, crossing her arms across her chest. 

“Yes, well disbelief does not negate fact,” Hecate replied. She was maintaining her usual cool demeanor, but Ada could feel her growing tense again.

Agatha quirked an eyebrow. She was clearly still not buying it, and for a moment Ada considered summoning a vial of forgetting powder. She wouldn’t be sure whom  
she would give it to though -- Agatha, so she could forget about this line of questioning; Hecate, so she could forget the trauma of being propositioned by Agatha; or herself, so she could forget just how good and right it felt to be held by Hecate. 

“How long have you two been seeing each other?” 

Hecate said “six months” at the same time Ada said “a year.”

They looked at each other. 

“Well we started seeing each other very casually about a year ago,” Ada said slowly.

“But it’s only been truly serious for six months,” Hecate added. 

Agatha smirked. “Uh-huh. Where did you go on your first date?”

Hecate glanced at Ada and raised her eyebrows, indicating she should answer.

Ada wracked her brain, trying to come up with something believable. It didn’t help that she often daydreamed about taking Hecate on dates, so all the mental images she had created for herself came swirling to the forefront of her mind. “I...cooked for her,” she said finally. “We so rarely get to spend time away from the castle, and Mummy had just given me her paella recipe, so we decided to have a night in.”

Hecate nodded, approving of this imaginary first date scenario. “It was lovely.”

“Oh yes, it sounds like it,” Agatha purred.

Ada’s stomach sank. She knew that tone of voice all too well, and knew that it never indicated anything good. 

“Agatha-” 

“Hecate, how long did it take for you to get my prudish sister here into the sack?” she asked, in a voice dripping with honey and venom. “Although I’m sure she calls it _making love_ , or something equally revolting.” She was grinning like a Cheshire Cat with a belly full of cream, and it was clear that she thought she’d won this round.  
Ada’s cheeks burned. She should have expected that question (this was Agatha, after all), but it still left her speechless.

“Why you...we-I won’t even dignify that with a response,” Hecate spluttered. She too was blushing, and with the combination of her current proximity and the topic of conversation, Ada couldn’t help but wonder what she would look like with cheeks flushed for an entirely different reason. 

Hecate cleared her throat and tried to gather herself. “I fail to see how any of this is your business. You have your answer, I have no interest in seeing you.”

Agatha rolled her eyes. “Really Hecate,” she sneered. “I’d have thought you’d have better sense than that. Why settle for some snivelling, doe-eyed little milquetoast when you could have-”

“A petty, narcissistic, pathetic excuse for a witch who’d do well to keep an eye out for falling houses?” Hecate drawled. She tilted her chin up and smirked in a way that told Ada she’d had that insult up her sleeve for quite a while. 

Agatha’s nostrils flared. She stepped forward, raising her casting hand with a threatening glare. “Now you listen here,” she said, voice shaking with a building fury.

“No, you listen here,” Hecate said as she drew herself up to her full height, keeping one arm wrapped around Ada. “Not only is Ada kind, compassionate, and beautiful, she is also one of the most powerful witches I’ve ever known. If you thought for a moment I could ever fall in love with anyone but her, least of all _you_ , you’re even madder than we all thought.”

Agatha grit her teeth, trying to come up with a stinging retort. Her casting hand was still raised though, so Ada loosened her grip on Hecate, ready to toss up a shielding charm if need be. 

Finally, Agatha managed to grumble out, “Probably a cold fish in bed anyway, hardly worth the trouble,” before transferring away with a dramatic puff of smoke. 

Hecate let out a deep sigh and sagged against Ada. It seemed to take her a moment to realize they were still holding each other; when she did, her cheeks pinked as she pulled her arm back. Ada released her hold on Hecate’s waist and stepped back, immediately missing the contact. 

Hecate squared her shoulders and straightened her posture. “Thank you, Ada. I must apologize, I panicked when she propositioned me and couldn’t think of a better solution.” 

Ada chuckled nervously. “No need to apologize,” she said, trying to keep her tone breezy. “If anything I should be thanking you, women have always prefered Agatha over me so this will truly rattle her.”

Hecate raised her eyebrows. “That can’t be true.” 

Ada adjusted her spectacles and shrugged. “Ever since we were teenagers. Not that I blame them, for all her faults she’s still always been the sexy and exciting one. I’m just the dowdy schoolteacher.” 

It was true, and Agatha had always delighted in stealing Ada’s paramours. Her first love, Mona Spellbody, when they were fifteen; her university sweetheart, Minerva Mugwort, while Ada was studying abroad in New Zealand; her fiancé, Demetria Nettle, two weeks before their wedding. All of them drawn in by Agatha’s strange seductive charms, all of them thrown away the second she tired of them. She supposed there was some sort of poetic justice to it — Ada got to have the school, the title, and their great-grandmother’s broom, and Agatha got to have any woman she wanted. 

“You...you truly believe that that?” Hecate asked.

Ada gave another shrug, growing increasingly uncomfortable with this conversation.“It’s not a question of belief, it’s the truth. But as I said, she’ll be quite shaken by this, which will hopefully afford the rest of us a bit of peace and quiet.” She forced a halfhearted chuckle.

Hecate nodded, though she was still regarding her with a curious expression that Ada couldn’t decipher. 

“Well, I’d best be off,” Ada said, giving a bright smile. “No rest for the wicked, as they say.” 

Hecate blinked. “Yes, right. I should be going too.” She transferred away, probably to her lab, leaving Ada alone in the corridor once again.

 _So much for a relaxing walk_ , Ada thought. Steeling herself, she turned and walked back towards her mother’s office, feeling even more confused and anxious than before.

*****

Three days later, Ada was sitting in her classroom, poring over budget proposals and wondering how Miss Gullet could possibly go through so much bat’s blood in one month, when she heard a soft knock at the door.

“Come in.”

Hecate materialized in front of her desk. They hadn’t seen each other since the incident in the hall, though this was not surprising. During the summer, Hecate had a habit of disappearing into her lab for days on end, eventually emerging with a dazed look on her face and a few small cauldron burns on her hands. Ada always gave her space during these times, though she had been known to stop by the lab on occasion to drop off a bowl of soup or slice of cake. (She couldn’t help but worry about how little Hecate ate sometimes.)

Right now, Hecate looked far from dazed. Her face was pinched and tense, and she was rubbing the tips of her index fingers against the pads of her thumbs with much more force than usual.

“Hecate, what’s the matter?” Ada said, half-rising from her chair. “Is everyone alright?”

Hecate closed her eyes and nodded. She waved a hand, indicating that Ada should sit. 

Ada lowered herself, relieved that there hadn’t been some sort of horrendous calamity. Alma was away for the night, and Ada was still terrified by the prospect of handling a crisis on her own.

Hecate took a deep breath. “I have something I need to tell you.”

“What is it?” Ada asked, cocking her head to the side.

Hecate trained her gaze somewhere above Ada’s left shoulder. 

“I understand that it is highly inappropriate, and I am willing to tender my resignation if you deem it necessary. I just….it’s something I have to say.”

Ada wracked her brain trying to figure out what this could be about. Something to do with Mistress Broomhead? But no, they had resolved all of that years ago. This must be something different, something worse, though Ada could scarcely imagine anything worse than being subjected to Mistress Broomhead’s experiments. 

She finally gave up on trying to guess. “What is it?” 

Hecate dropped her gaze to the floor. “Yesterday, during the debacle with Agatha, I wasn’t...I wasn’t acting.” 

Ada furrowed her brow. “I’m not sure I understand.”

Hecate flexed her hands at her sides, drawing her long fingers into fists before splaying them back out like starfish. “I meant what I said to her. About being unable to f-fall in love with anyone but you.” She ducked her head and folded her arms across her chest.

Of all the things Hecate could have said in that moment, this was the last one Ada would have expected. Her mind reeled, trying to process this new information. Perhaps she had simply misheard? Or maybe there was something she wasn’t getting, some sort of subtext. Yes, that had to be it. She just needed some clarification, and possibly a hearing test. 

“You...what?”

Hecate began to pace in front of Ada’s desk; in the otherwise quiet classroom, the sharp clicking of her heels created a small echo. “I’m sorry, Ada. But I say this without any hope or agenda, and as I said before I understand if you wish for me to resign now. But when you said that women tend to prefer Agatha over you, I knew I could not in good conscience stay silent and allow you to think that your sister could ever hold a candle to you.” She stopped pacing as she seemed to near the end of her rehearsed script. “I...I know this does not mean much, especially coming from me. But you are the most remarkable woman I have ever met, and anyone else in their right mind would surely feel the same.”

That...that did not leave much room for misunderstanding. Ada stared up at Hecate, knowing full well that her face must have been a picture of sheer bewilderment. 

“You love me.”

“Yes.”

“Romantic love, not just friend-and-trusted-colleague love.”

Hecate winced at the word ‘romantic’, but still nodded. “Yes.”

Ada adjusted her spectacles. “And you were willing to sacrifice your position here at Cackle’s if it meant I might stop feeling inferior and less desirable than my sister.”

Hecate opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. She raised her eyebrows and shrugged helplessly. 

Ada had long since given up on denying the fact she had feelings for Hecate, but now her heart felt as if it were fit to burst with love. She knew how much Hecate struggled with words sometimes, and how much difficulty she could have with speaking up for herself (when she was first hired at Cackles it took a full three weeks for her to work up enough courage to tell Ada that her name was not pronounced “He-Kate”), so she could only imagine what it had taken in order for her to make such a declaration. And for no other reason than to make Ada happy.

Her first instinct was to deem herself unworthy of such love, to shy away from the gesture and say that Hecate deserved someone better. But that was the exact opposite of Hecate’s intention, to say nothing of the fact it would be a gesture of pure cowardice. And if Hecate could be brave for her, she could be brave for Hecate.

After a moment’s deliberation she stood and circled the desk, coming to stand in front of Hecate. Up close, she could see that the muscles in her jaw were taut, as if she were expecting a slap or a reprimand.

Ada hesitated. She felt as if she should say something, but anything she came up with would certainly pale in comparison to Hecate’s declaration. Instead, she reached out a trembling hand and rested it on Hecate’s bicep, giving it a comforting squeeze as she had a hundred times before.

Hecate’s face softened at the familiarity of the gesture, realizing it meant that Ada was not upset with her. Her shoulders sagged slightly, as if a physical weight had been lifted from them. 

Without breaking eye contact, Ada slowly ran her hand down Hecate’s arm before taking her hand. She traced the ridges of knuckles with her thumb, taking a moment to marvel at the softness of her skin before leaning down and pressing a featherlight kiss to the back of her hand.

Hecate sucked in her breath. Her expression shifted, going from relief to surprise, then settling into a kind of shy wonder. 

Ada ran her thumb across Hecate’s knuckles again. “I wasn’t acting either,” she said softly. “That story we made up was something out of my wildest, dearest dreams.”

“You…” Hecate trailed off. 

Ada nodded. 

A tiny, hopeful smile began to play at the corners of Hecate’s mouth. She looked down at their joined hands and gave Ada’s fingers a soft experimental squeeze. “I must admit, I was not... expecting that.”

“Well if I hadn’t already been in love with you, I certainly would have been after that declaration,” Ada said. “I had no idea you were such a romantic.”

Hecate’s cheeks pinked and she tugged her lower lip between her teeth. She looked downright bashful, and once again Ada felt her heart swell. 

She lifted her free hand towards Hecate’s face, pausing in midair.

“May I?” 

It took Hecate a moment to understand what she was asking. The apples of her cheeks reddened as she nodded. “Of course,” she breathed.

Unable to wait another second, Ada moved her hand to the nape of Hecate’s neck and drew her down into a soft kiss. A small whimper came from the back of Hecate’s throat — the tiny, desperate sound of two years of longing finally coming to fruition. 

Ada deepened the kiss, twining her arms around Hecate’s neck, and Hecate responded by placing her hands on Ada’s waist and pulling her as close as possible. Her hands were firm but gentle, as if she were holding a treasured item, a piece of fine china. Ada felt positively cherished, and if she had not been otherwise occupied she could have cried for the sheer beauty of it all. 

The kiss came to a natural end a few minutes later. Ada took a deep, shaky breath and rested her head on Hecate’s shoulder. Everything felt wonderfully warm and hazy, and for the first time in a long time she felt safe and secure.

Hecate let out a contented sigh. Her arms were wrapped around Ada’s shoulders, and she seemed to have no intention of letting go any time soon. She tilted her chin to the side and pressed a kiss to Ada’s temple. 

“What happens now?” she asked. It was a fair question, but Ada could hear the worry in her voice. 

Ada shifted and pulled back just enough to be able to look her in the eye. She stroked the back of Hecate’s neck, dipping her fingers just below the fabric of her high collar. “I’m not sure,” she said. “But my mother really did give me her paella recipe, so we could start by making that first date a reality, if you’d like.” 

Hecate smirked and ducked her head, brushing the tip of her nose against Ada’s . 

“I’d like that very much.”


End file.
